Indonesian Media in Brief: Making Indonesia 4.0

Posted on April 20, 2018By Ella Nugraha

Credit: KOMPAS.com/Ihsanuddin

Indonesia is preparing to face the Industrial Revolution 4.0, which revolves around digital economy.

President Joko Widodo is optimistic that this is an opportunity for Indonesia to create more jobs and become among the top ten largest economies in the world by 2030. The Indonesian Ministry of Industry has published a roadmap containing ten strategic steps to anticipate this revolution, including boosting vocational education.

The government has prepared a roadmap for the Industrial Revolution 4.0. The roadmap is aimed at digital economy, where technology is rapidly growing and is expected to support the economy.

President Jokowi says the Industrial Revolution 4.0 could be an opportunity as well as a threat. “Is the industrial revolution a great opportunity? My answer is yes, and we can prepare, plan and anticipate this. Is the revolution 4.0 a threat? I think the answer is yes and no.”

Jokowi stated the direction of industrial revolution 4.0 is digitisation.

He recently mentioned that the Dubai government has announced it will utilise robotics for construction, such as using 3D printing technology. Singapore is also experimenting with something similar, such as delivering hotel room service using independent robots.

For this reason, Jokowi supports the Making Indonesia 4.0 roadmap by the Ministry of Industry to seriously anticipate this revolution.

It is expected that its implementation can put Indonesia among the top ten economies in the world by 2030, by creating more than 10 million jobs and increasing productivity and exporting.

“In addition to creating new jobs, Industry 4.0 must ensure inclusive growth of all layers of society, including small and medium enterprises, and not just big companies,” he said.

The government will boost local human resources education to support the development of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. More skilled human resources professionals are needed so that Indonesia is not only a spectator in Industrial Revolution 4.0.

“We have considerable capital of talent because we have many universities, so there is enough potential to meet the needs of the digital era,” said Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto.

Despite its great potential, Airlangga feels that local human resources still need to be encouraged to use science training that suits the digital economy. This is also in line with the instruction of the President.

“After infrastructure, Mr. President encourages human resource education. This year vocational education will be encouraged, followed by polytechnic level education. There is also re-skilling programs within the Ministry of Industry,” Airlangga said.

He also added that the ministry will push universities to open as much access to the Internet of Things, which is the basis of Industrial Revolution 4.0.

“In addition, universities will also be encouraged to provide compulsory subjects related to digitisation, such as coding, data analysis or artificial intelligence or statistics which are key to developing human resources that are ready to meet this era of digitisation,” he said.

At the launch ceremony of the roadmap that is considered the gateway to the fourth industrial revolution, President Joko Widodo denied the potential of 800 million people worldwide losing their livelihoods.

The McKinsey Global Research Institute predicted in 2017 that the majority of jobs will shift from human to machine-controlled digital technology. In 2030 a digital-based economy will create at least 9% of unprecedented job opportunities. During that period Japan will have four million unemployed, while 138 million new jobs will be created in India.

“I believe that this industrial revolution will create more new jobs,” said President Jokowi.

Jokowi said Indonesia needs to prepare a digital economic road map whether we like it or not. He added that Thailand and Singapore have already published a long-term strategy.

In order to protect labor-intensive industries from the negative impacts of digital economy, the government will maximize the development of ’10 new Balis ‘ to boost the tourist economy. · “We are preparing 10 new Balis, where in any situation, manual work and the creative industries will be incorporated into a lot of jobs,” said Jokowi.

The roadmap of Indonesia’s digital economy will focus on developing five manufacturing industries – food and beverage, automotive, electronics, chemicals, and textiles. The contribution of these five sectors to the national gross domestic product (GDP) is currently 17.8%.

To reach the target to be the tenth largest economy by 2030, the roadmap contains ten steps that the government needs to implement. Among them are: empowering SMEs through digital technology, improving digital infrastructure, attracting foreign investors, changing educational curricula, and providing incentives for businesses based on digital technology.

The Australia-Indonesia Centre was established by the Australian Government in late 2013 to facilitate research-driven innovation and build stronger relationships between Australia and Indonesia. The Centre, hosted by Monash University, is a collaboration between Monash University, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, working with seven leading Indonesian universities.